Pipelines to be built with cheap foreign labour, Pat Martin charges

Recent Conservative decisions to repeal the fair wages act and streamline the Temporary Foreign Worker Program were made with a view to future pipeline construction, says NDP MP Pat Martin.

“It’s custom-written for the pipeline industry. Not that many jobs are considered federal jobs under federal jurisdiction… but pipelines are, and that means that a non-union contractor can pay the lowest he wants,” Martin told iPolitics Wednesday.

Though labour generally falls under provincial jurisdiction, projects that cross provincial borders – such as oil and gas pipelines – are a federal responsibility, and therefore subjected to the Fair Wages and Hours of Labour Act.

That will soon change, however, when the Conservatives repeal it as part of the budget implementation bill.

Proponents say it will make construction more efficient by eliminating minimum wage requirements on federal projects.

But for Martin, when the act’s repeal is combined with changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, the result will be a race to the bottom that’s primary intention is to minimize the cost of building oil and gas pipelines.

The Conservatives stated their “intention to better align the Temporary Foreign Worker Program with labour market demands” in the 2012 budget, and according to The Globe and Mail, companies will now be able to “bring in people with just 10 days notice and to pay them 15 per cent less than a Canadian would earn.”

These are precisely the workers Martin is concerned will be exploited to build Canadian pipelines.

“All you have to do to qualify to get temporary foreign workers is to post the job in a newspaper or something for a couple of weeks, and if you don’t get the people you want, you go to the government and say, ‘Look, I tried to find qualified Canadians. They wouldn’t come to work,” he explained.

“And all of the sudden they give you one of these magic permits to hire temporary foreign workers and then you sleep six to a hotel room and work 12 hours a day…pay them seven bucks an hour and away you go.”

From the perspective of the pipeline industry, though, the industry’s demand for skilled labour prevents that kind of predatory hiring practice.

“There’s just too much at stake on those projects to not have the right type of workers with the right amount of training and technical skills,” said Philippe Reicher, VP of external relations at the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association.

Furthermore, he added, if you look at the Pipe Line Contractors Association of Canada members, which make up the few companies capable of handling the potential pipeline work, most of them are unionized.

“Foreign workers will not displace Canadian union workers on major pipeline projects,” he said unequivocally.